A Woman in Her Place - Transcript

[Jeanne Goetzinger] "The hotel has owned our family for 33 years now and it’s been wonderful. You know."

Jeanne Goetzinger is the innkeeper at Chadron's historic Frontier Hotel, the Olde Main Street Inn. In the 1960's, Jeanne's mother took a shine to the old hotel.

[Goetzinger] "Mom was always a businesswoman from the time I was small and she knew this building and she'd come over and she'd look at it. And she'd go upstairs and she'd walk around and look at it and try to think how she would change it and she just fell in love with the building."

Eventually, she bought it. Over the next 14 years, Evva operated the saloon and renovated the building in stages.

[Goetzinger] "She put up paneling and laid down carpeting and created the Cave, which is now our dining room. It was dirt floor and feedsacks and lumber at that point."

In the meantime, Jeanne had left Chadron at 17. She married, put her husband through college, and raised two kids. She divorced, moved to Denver, and she found a new passion.

[Goetzinger] "It was a little 500 Triumph and [I] learned to ride it. And then it was probably, oh it wasn't a month and it felt too small for me so I bought my 68 Sportster. And we rode many miles together."

And then she got the call from home.

[Goetzinger] "I would not have left Denver and the law firm where I made lots of money and had a great deal of comfort. I wouldn't have found an old hotel and done this. But the choice was this, letting your mom go on until she dropped because this is a lot of work.

"I told Mom I'd come home and I'd do it if we could turn it into a bed and breakfast. And she said fine. And I came home and looked around and went, ‘Oh my God, what have I done?’ "

So she found herself back at home, living and working with her mom. And readjusting to Chadron.

[Goetzinger] "When I first came here and we were doing things like creative things for lunch such as quiche. Well, I'd joke that you know, when you say quiche here they'd say, ‘Gezundheit!’ "

But she was soon reminded of the finer points of small town life.

[Goetzinger] "Chadron is a conservative, rural community. You don't have to lock your doors. It's a good place to live. You leave the city and you're able to take off all those layers of armor. You don't need those here. You have time to visit with your neighbors, you know. And even if you don't like your neighbor very much you're to make sure that he appears so you can at least argue with him again. Everybody kind of looks after each other.

"We have everything here. We have guests like Dick Cavitt -- Michael Martin Murphey. We have all the wonderful local people and each one brings something special to the to our life here. We have the cowboys. We have the indians. We have the college professors."

And she has the golden girls.

[Goetzinger] "Ah, the golden girls. Retired ladies who get together on Saturday afternoon and they drink a little red beer and they bring in a few good things to nibble on. And they laugh a lot and have a wonderful time.

"Everybody needs a venue -- someplace where they can go and visit. They don't have to be afraid. It's a comfortable environment. It's a ‘Cheers’ environment, you know. You look after each other and if somebody's being incredibly stupid somebody else is probably going to tell them."

With Jeanne at the helm there is plenty of room at the inn.

[Goetzinger] "Well, you know, it's my life and it's on my terms. And my terms are that if you're going to be here you're going to be kind to each other. And it will be a safe environment and if you're coming in bring something positive. Don't bring something negative. If you're going to be negative, you're probably not going to be in here very long."

Once in a while she'll get a quiet moment to herself.

[Goetzinger] "After twelve years there's so many things that have happened and it's kind of nice to just sit and look at what's been done, you know. It's wonderful to see that work completed. "

And in spite of all the hard work, Jeanne gets to live lots of moments. Those moments when people rejoice in each other's presence, their spirits basking in the glow of good company.

[Goetzinger] "All the stories that come through here -- they're just incredible. You know, I've had people stay with us that hadn't seen each other for ten years; didn't know each other was going to be here and met at breakfast. So you know, you never know what's going to happen and who's going to come in the door and what the next story is going to be."